Mozart fugue K.426

Through the analysis of Mozart¡¯s Fugue for two pianos K.426, one could state that Mozart has achieved a simple, yet complex fugal style. Simple, because he does not use many different ideas (most of the piece is based on the theme and a single countersubject), but complex because so much goes on all at once contrapuntally to create interest. In the following discussion, I¡¯ll be looking at the elements of Bach¡¯s fugal style used by Mozart and how they are incorporated into this fugue.

This fugue in many ways is very similar to a typical Bach fugue. It follows the typical fugal structure: exposition- episode and subsequent entries- final entry- codetta. In the exposition (bars 1-17) the theme is introduced in the four voices as subject and answer following the usual pattern: tonic-dominant-tonic-dominant. The answers in the dominant are tonal, where the exact transposition of the subject is altered to maintain the tonic-dominant relationship. In this particular case, the dro...